Scotophobia
by xTimexTurnerx
Summary: (Def: Fear of the dark) It's not that Ginny Weasley was afraid of the dark, but she liked to know what she was up against. Several nights after the final battle her thoughts and dreams portray her worst nightmare as it gets harder to distinguish the blurring line between reality, memories, and fantasy... but can someone save her?


_"Your inner fears come to light in the dark." - My mom_

* * *

Ginny Weasley lay in her bed, wanting desperately to fall asleep. Her light bulb in her bedside lamp was running low on power, casting a deep orange glow on her and her bed. A novel lay discarded on her bedside table; a fruitless attempt to distract her mind and tire her eyes. She sighed heavily and glanced at her digital clock, glowing a light purple, contrasting oddly with the gold radiance of her lamp. It was currently 12:09 am.

The light of the two muggle appliances gave her a strange sense of comfort, it's not as if she was afraid of the dark, but she liked to see what she was up against. She was more afraid of the unknown and what _could_be in the dark.

She looked around her room, it was to be polite, a disaster area. Being in a right foul mood for the past two- going on three- days and refusing to retreat from it, had put the innocent room to look more like a war zone. She could vaguely see the outline of a pile of clothes in the middle of the floor, her desk and chair, her closet door opened with her battle- torn cloak hanging on the door.

The reason, someone may ask, of why, or what had caused such a disturbance in the emotions of Ginny Weasley? Well, firstly, one of her twin brothers died two days ago. She was mourning her brother, Fred Weasley. He was an amazing man, and an even more amazing brother. Yes, he had irritated her to no end, made her getting a boyfriend near impossible, and made her the practical joke test dummy. But, he had also been one of the brothers she was closest to. He taught her the secret passages, how to cast her first Bat- Bogey Hex, and how to ride a broom. He made her smile. Now that he was gone, she realized full impact of what he had meant to her. She missed him terribly, but did not let the grief over take her, where ever he was, he was happy and would be pissed off if he knew she was sad and teary over him.

Then there was also her mentor, Tonks, and Tonk's husband, Lupin, one of her good friends, Colin Creevy, and for a moment… Harry.

Ah, the second reason of disturbance in the calm waters of Ginny's emotions. She knew he was the only thing that would make her happy; the only one who could rescue her from her spiraling down completely into nothingness. He would have understood.

Currently, Harry Potter, along with her youngest oldest brother, Ron, and his new girlfriend (smirk) Hermione Granger were at _The Quibbler_ head- quarters releasing statements of what had happened during the Final Battle. Ginny hadn't even spoken to them properly yet.

Before she could stop herself, the image of Harry laying dead on the damp grass floor swam into view. People gathered around and she remembered screaming his name, urging him to wake up. That was the one, and only, time she had cried during the final battle. She felt as if nothing made sense anymore and that maybe, a bit of her had died along with him.

Ginny shook her head attempting to get the mental picture out of her head. _He's alive. He's okay. Voldemort is dead, and not coming back. _She said these three sentences over and over again in her head. 12:23 am.

She really did need some sleep. She hadn't gotten a full nights rest since over a year ago, or more specifically, since Dumbledore's funeral. First it had been the pain of breaking up with the boy she wanted to marry since she was eight years old. After the 'Trio' had left the Burrow, it was worrying about how they were all doing… if they were even still alive. And then, when she got back to Hogwarts, she was so busy with Dumbledore's Army and doing everything in her power to try to do something to fight against Voldemort, even if it was only 'battling' two wretched school teachers.

Also… well, she couldn't exactly explain it. Not to anyone, or even to herself. Sometimes at night, she felt as if she was being watched over. Not in an alarming way, but rather someone was watching over her to protect her and make sure she was okay. It was a happy feeling, even if her brain had only conjured it to make her feel slightly less depressed. The nights it stopped happening, she usually ended up awake, waiting for the feeling to appear. She was afraid if she told anyone, she'd be in for a trip to St. Mungo's in the 'brain damage' ward. Lastly, the intensity of evil being right on the horizon and all of the motions slowly stringing together to bring on the Wizard War did not call for very peaceful sleeping for the past year.

All of these thoughts swirled around in her head, and slowly she drifted off into a very fitful sleep…

She opened her eyes. The smell of damp grass and forest filled her senses. She was lying on a grassy floor in the middle of a dark forest. The battered robe from the battle now adorned her body and the posters of her bed were large branches of a tree. The lump of laundry that used to be in the middle of her floor was stirring. Her desk chair was slowly morphing into a taller lengthy figure…

Ginny stood up rather quickly, she could tell whatever was stirring on the floor was in trouble from this tall cloaked figure. Instantly as she started to move forwards the branches jumped into action and wrapped themselves snugly around her body, rooting her to the spot. All she could do was watch helplessly as the scene unfolded.

"Ah," the tall figure hissed, she could hear the sick, smug smile in his tone, "the famous Harry Potter finally at the mercy of Lord Voldemort." Ginny's mouth fell open into an 'O'. That was Harry on the ground! She struggled against the limbs of the tree and they tightened almost to the point where Ginny couldn't breathe.

"Here I am Harry. It seemed as if I had died, didn't it? Nothing I love more than a reunion. Now I have one demand, that is all… tell me where the Weasley girl is." Voldemort hissed.

"…N-no…" Harry managed to choke out. Ginny was alarmed at how faint and raspy Harry's voice was.

"Do not lie to me Harry Potter. You know where she is, you think about her often. You thought about her when I tried to kill you two hours ago! Yet, here you are. Just tell me, and you can go free. You don't need to die, Harry…" Voldemort trailed off waiting for a reply.

"L-leave he-her _alone_!" Despite the shakiness of Harry's voice, the last word came out powerful and commanding.

Voldemort laughed cruelly and shrilly. The hair on the back of Ginny's neck stood up. She struggled more to try and get to Harry, the branches tightened yet again until she was gasping shallowly for breath. "… Harry…" she gasped out, trying to get his attention.

"Do you love the blood traitor Potter? Tsk tsk. All the more reason for me to kill her…" Voldemort was smiling as Harry struggled to try and stand up.

"Don't- you- lay- a- hand- on- her." Harry said this while gasping for breath and clutching his rib cage as he stood up.

"I'M RIGHT HERE. LEAVE HARRY ALONE!" Ginny shouted. No one could hear her.

"Potter needs to learn how to share- _crucio!_"

"NO!" Ginny yelled.

Voldemort yelled out the curse and Harry fell to the ground. He didn't yell, but Ginny could see that his bottom lip was bleeding from him biting down on it and holding it in.

"I'm finished with you, Potter. If you will be no use to me by giving me what information I want then we are done. You thwarted me too long. There is no piece of my soul to save you this time. And if it's any consolation, the Weasley girl will be in _excellent_ hands when you're gone. Good- bye, Harry Potter. _Avada K-"_

With one final huge struggle, Ginny broke free of the branches and ran to Harry's body. Voldemort vanished and her desk chair was in his place.

The dark cloak of night vanished and turned to day.

Ginny kneeled down next to Harry's body. His eyes were closed and Ginny searched his wrist frantically for a pulse. "Please… Harry, wake up! Don't be dead, don't be dead…" A single tear trickled down her face. She felt pressure on her shoulder for some reason, she looked and nothing was there.

_Ginny._

She let go of Harry's body in surprise. She knew that voice anywhere. It was Harry's voice, but she knew his lips didn't move.

_Ginny! _The voice was more insistent, Ginny closed her eyes to listen to the musical quality of Harry's voice. It calmed her down immensely and she forgot that she was in the middle in a God- forsaken forest with the love of her entire life almost dead… but she was also hearing his voice?

Her eyes snapped open.

She was back in her own bedroom and her light was turned on. The battle torn robe no longer on her, but hanging back up on her closet, and everything was in place as it should be. That was only dream? But it felt so real!

And the _real_ Harry Potter was kneeling down next to her bed with his hand on his shoulder. He looked so exhausted and in need of a nice hot meal. But to Ginny, he had never looked more handsome.

Their gazes connected for a full minute. Then Ginny looked down at the hand on her shoulder and back up at Harry.

"Oh, right." He said, the spell of Ginny's gaze being broken. He pulled the hand off her shoulder and stood up. Ginny pulled herself up and sat resting against her headboard. "Me and Ron and Hermione, we were just getting back from Luna's… you know, doing an interview for _The Quibbler_… and Ron and Hermione wanted to go out for a bit, but I didn't really want to be a third wheel so I came back here… and then I was walking up to me and Ron's room and I heard…" he looked apologetically at Ginny before he continued with his babbling.

"I heard-erm, well, my name, so I knocked and then you said something like 'Leave Harry alone' so I came in, just to make sure you were, you know… okay. Nearly tripped over your chair, so I turned on the light. And you were sort of freaking out a little. You kept saying 'don't be dead, don't be dead' so I tried to wake you up. You're a heavy sleeper you know that?" He hada weak smile and Ginny was still trying to fully become conscious _and_ comprehend the fact that Harry was in her room when the last time he was in here they had…

"Are you okay?" he asked. Ginny was still in a daze and just nodded her head.

"Good, well that's… yeah. Right, I'm sorry I came in and I'll just… be off now… because I'm making myself look more stupid every second I stay here… right-er- 'night." And Harry turned and walked out of the room. The second he had shut Ginny's door her eyes widened and she just realized what had happen.

She threw the covers off herself and jumped out of bed. She grabbed her wand and muttered '_lumos_'so she could see in the hallway. She threw her door open. "Harry!" She whispered very loudly into the hallway, sticking her wand out in front of her.

"What took you so long?" He said from the wall behind her. She turned around and smiled at him, and he was already smirking back.

And at that moment, nothing else really mattered. Not that it was two o'clock in the morning and both parties involved were worse for the wear, not that everything was in broken pieces from the aftermath of the war, and not that there were a lot of people that could easily walk into the hallway they were occupying, all that mattered was that Harry and Ginny were finally alone; together.

She smirked and slowly walked over to the wall where Harry was leaning against, putting out her wand's light as she went, all the light that was needed was from the window. The moon hung in the sky and casted a clear, pearly light on the two people. Ginny liked this darkness. She knew what she was up against. She placed her arms around Harry's neck.

"Now, here's the silver lining I've been looking for."


End file.
